Woman denied alimony for concealing facts from court

SummaryShe was denied alimony on the ground that she had left her job to become eligible for it.

A woman was denied by a Delhi court the relief of alimony from her estranged husband on the ground that she had left her job to become eligible for it.

Refusing to order the woman's husband to pay her maintenance for suppressing material facts from the court, Metropolitan Magistrate Shivali Sharma noted that she had left her job and later took admission in a private university here to claim maintenance.

"Since the petitioner(woman) has not given any reason for leaving her job and joining the course with Amity University, it prima facie appears that her act of leaving her job was primarily on account of making her eligible for claiming maintenance from her husband," the court said.

The court rejected her plea for interim maintenance, also saying that a well-educated woman cannot leave her job just for claiming maintenance.

"The law has been settled by the superior courts that no female, who is well-educated and in a position to maintain herself, can be permitted to leave her job and sit idle at her home with the sole purpose of claiming maintenance from her husband," it said.

The woman, living separately from her husband, had sought the alimony saying she had no source of income and was pursuing a course of Masters in Hospital Administration from Amity University.

On examining her bank statements, the court came to know that till September last year she was getting a salary of Rs 19,000 per month from where she was working. She had left her job in September last year and had then joined the course.

Irked with the woman's conduct, the magistrate said she never thought it proper to disclose before it that she was working somewhere earlier.

"It is a settled law that no interim relief can be granted to a party who is guilty of concealing material facts from the court," the court said.